11 Rebels Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

11 Rebels Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 23, 2025

There is of course what is often referred to as a "baker's dozen", where a friendly food seller includes an extra item with the purchased twelve, but is there some kind "Japanese Dozen" that may be somewhat lesser known, where an item is actually removed? One needs guidance in this potentially perplexing situation since for all intents and purposes, 11 Rebels plays like a feudal Japanese version of The Dirty Dozen, wherein a bunch of hardened criminals are tasked with some wartime defense efforts which, if successful, will win them their freedom. The film is a sweeping epic in an "old school" sense, but it also has the curiously Asian stylistic approach of "identifying" virtually every character and/or location that comes on screen courtesy of superimposed titles, so at least interstitially the actual narrative can recede as reading and contextualizing needs to take place. Rather fascinatingly for those of us in the United States who may not be overly aware of this, there was another Civil War that erupted halfway across the globe literally just a few years after the one here had ended. The Boshin War was not as long lived as the United States fracas, lasting just a bit less than a year and a half, but it was a hugely bloody affair that actually finally brought down the Tokugawa shogunate and led to the so-called Meiji Restoration. 11 Rebels finds a coterie of perceived "criminals" caught in this showdown who are not just pawns in a game not of their choosing, but who in fact may have conflicted motives about whether they support the "coalition" or the "empire".

It might be convincingly argued that there were relatively few moral shades of gray in The Dirty Dozen, since virtually no one would argue that defeating the forces of Nazism and/or fascism probably outweighed any qualms about using "criminals". In 11 Rebels there's a good deal more subterfuge at play, since the whole gambit to use a bunch of incarcerated people (including two about to be executed) is just that: a ruse constructed by Mizoguchi Takumi (Sadao Abe) of the Shibata Domain, who is more or less a regent for a young and inexperienced ruler named Mizoguchi Naomasa (I'm frankly not sure who plays this role). It is revealed in an early scene that the Shibata Domain has not been providing fighters for the coalition's war against the imperial forces, and the rest of the coalition is ready to basically take possession of the Domain in order to "recruit" soldiers. Takumi's strategy is to have the eleven criminals hold off the interloping coalition forces at a fort on the outskirts of the Domain, perhaps until the imperial forces can overwhelm the coalition's forces.

This is almost by necessity a vignette driven enterprise, propelled by some vicious fighting scenes, but there is at least a hint of human emotion courtesy of at least one of the main focal characters. An early scene documents Masa (Takayuki Yamada) finding out his wife has been raped by a Shibata samurai, and unsurprisingly Masa finds the perpetrator and kills him, leading to his incarceration and eventual conscription as one of the eleven. That of course leaves a lingering question as to whether Masa will be able to reunite with his wife (who seems to be mute and is consigned in her few scenes to basically just cry hysterically, in a largely unexplained sidebar). Masa, who has a "particular set of skills", contrasts with a "newbie" named Washio Heishiro (Taiga Nakano), whose enthusiasm about finally getting into a battle is quickly countered by the reality of being in battle. Rather interestingly, at least in terms of the testosterone drenched Dirty Dozen, there's a female criminal as part of the eleven, Natsu (Riho Sayashi).

It may actually be helpful to ignore the on screen identifiers (as much as possible, anyway) and simply "go with the flow", since the production design does a decent job of separating various fighting units courtesy of costumes and the like, and, really, the energy here is not derived from any particular plot points but simply the sheer spectacle of the many set pieces. It may be salient to note that the film evidently screened in Japan at around two and a half hours, but it's been shorn of around 30 minutes of runtime for this home video release.

11 Rebels Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

11 Rebels is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The closing credits roll disclose a couple of Sony cameras were used to capture imagery, and since both of the models have source capture resolutions of at times well above 4K, I'm assuming based on that and frankly just the actual look of things that this had a 4K DI, though as of the writing of this review, the IMDb doesn't really provide any technical information (as always with my reviews, if anyone has verifiable authoritative technical information, private message me and I'll happily update things here). While I'll cut to the chase and definitely recommend those with an interest in this title who have the appropriate equipment to opt for Well Go USA's standalone 11 Rebels 4K release, this is a really stunning looking presentation within the context of its resolution and standard dynamic range. Detail levels are excellent throughout the presentation (even if they're probably arguably improved in the 4K outing), and fine detail in particular is quite precise looking on any number of things ranging from the kind of woven burlap vest Masa wears in the early going, or even the repeated views of foliage. The palette is really gorgeously suffused throughout, and a number of scenes graded toward blues or greens are especially evocative, even if those tonal values are given more luster in the 4K version courtesy of HDR/ Dolby Vision. Digital grain is probably more subliminal at this decreased resolution when stacked up against the 4K presentation, but actually gives the film a nicely textured appearance in my estimation.

11 Rebels Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

11 Rebels features a Dolby Atmos track in the original Japanese which is consistently immersive and provides both "traditional" surround activity in abundance while also regularly engaging the Atmos speakers, sometimes for seemingly "minor" effects like when a warrior lowers a staff dramatically in an early scene, leading to an overhead "whooshing" sound. The battle scenes (which are frequent) of course provide the most blistering sonic environments, and everything from the steel on steel sound of clashing swords to several rather impressive explosions elevate (in more ways than one) the sound design. The score is rather interesting (a Milanese orchestra gets a lot of space on the credits roll, with every instrument player commendably listed), combining western orchestrations and especially string sonorities with more of an ethnic touch courtesy of colorings from what sound like shakuhachis and kotos. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and French subtitles are available.

11 Rebels Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD; 2:17)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the disc has been authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases after the trailer for this film plays. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Packaging features a slipcover (note that both the sleeve insert and slipcover offer the same art as Well Go USA's 11 Rebels 4K release, differing from the approach Well Go USA took with their recently reviewed releases of The Prosecutor in 1080 and 4K.

11 Rebels Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

For those interested in a what might be called a "multimedia" round of further research into this general era in Japan's tumultuous history, I might recommend both a relatively well known film and a lesser known musical to explore. The Last Samurai might be viewed as something of a "coda" to this tale, though it certainly portrays the samurai class in a completely different light than this film does. The Stephen Sondheim musical Pacific Overtures also covers Japanese history from 1853 to "contemporary" (meaning the time of the musical's production) times, and while there's no film version, a really gorgeous cast recording is available and John Weidman's libretto can be purchased. Technical merits are first rate, and 11 Rebels comes Recommended.